Croatia: Part 3 - Day 2 Second Half: Mount Srd

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 2

2/8 Day 2 Second half: Hiked up Mount Srd to see the sunset.

Costs
(1) Uber back to accommodation from town - Shared EUR9,90

The Story

02082025: After our early dinner at Heritage of Dubrovnik, we started our slow walk towards Mount Srd.Earlier in the day, we took the boat to Lokrum island and got back by 3pm. Dinner was at 4pm and finished by 5pm. We were tired from the heat but we kept to our plan. Along the way, we filled our water bottles with the water from Onofrio's Fountain that was in the center of Old Town.

A bit of history of the fountain. Source from Expedia.

The fountain was constructed in 1438 to bring water from the River Dubrovačka, located 7 miles (12 kilometres) away. It was designed by architect Onofrio Giordano della Cava and was part of one of the first aqueducts to be built in the region.

I stood outside the wall and could see the peak of Mount Srd. It looked easy but it was not when we did the walk due to the heat. It is not a high mountain. It got me curious on what differentiates a mountain from a hill. So, there is a definition that a mountain is higher than 600 meters but it can differ by countries. I would have considered this a hill. 

The mountain, part of the Dinaric Alps, has a height of 412 metres (1,352 ft). At its top is a large white stone cross and Fort Imperial, a defensive structure built by the French in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. Srđ was once forested with oak trees which locals called dubrava (from the old Slavic word dub, "oak tree"), after which the city of Dubrovnik was named. The southern slope was once rich with pine forests, but in the second half of the 20th century and during the 1991–95 Croatian War of Independence, the forest was almost completely gutted through numerous fires. Source from Wikipedia.

When we told our AirBnb hostess that we were going to hike up Mount Srd, she commented that it was better to take the cable car rather than go up 1000 steps. She was not joking when she said 1000 steps. Because it could be more than 1000 steps. The steps just never end as we kept walking up and up. Oh my legs..

Soon, we saw a sign that showed Mount Srd. I did not realise that the sign shows the direction to the mountain until I saw them along the route and I connected the dots. I am not sure what the arrow in the sign is supposed to represent. Google Map directed us well to the base of the mountain.

20 minutes later, we exited the town, crossed the road and entered nature.

The straight path was a short one and then the gradual ascend began. It was still bearable as we were walking under trees.

It was a zigzag walk towards the peak. The sun showed no mercy.

 

The heat did not give me the opportunity to stop and enjoy the view. I can enjoy the view now as I am looking at the photo while typing my blog. Can you see the Wall of Dubrovnik around Old Town? And Lokrum island at the left side in the photo.

It was recommended to wear shoes for the trail. One companion forgot about it and wore slippers up the trail. He managed it but he found it challenging when he went downhill as there were many loose rocks. I had hiking shoes, otherwise, my ankle would have twisted a couple of times. The downside is that my feet was sweating inside the shoes.

Along the trail, there are many wooden crosses and sculptures with religious images. It was too bright from the sun so I could not take good photos of the sculptures. It felt like I was going on a pilgrimage walk. I know Croatia's population is made up of a majority of Catholics and seeing the crosses gives me an understanding that this is a religious country.

It was difficult to find a shade along the trail. No water too so it was good that we filled our water bottles before we started the hike.

Looks like I managed to catch a photo of one of the sculptures together with a cross.

The cable car line. At writing time, a one-way ticket costs EUR17 and a return ticket costs EUR30. Okay, that is a lot of money.

At 7pm, (1.5 hours later), we reached the top! I was surprised to see that one can drive to the top. We could have taken Uber but where is the fun in that. And we cannot say that we have experienced the mountain. There is a restaurant on the top with not-cheap food. We were not even keen to get soft drinks. There is a Homeland War museum in the fort with an entrance fee EUR5, so I lost my interest to enter the museum. Eventually, I was informed that the museum has an interesting exhibition of the civil war 1991-1995. The fort is still standing tall. 

There are many buggy safaris at the peak. One rents a buggy and ride into the off-road. I was not keen. I wanted to see the sunset. 

Bosnia on the other side.

We found a spot to see the sunset. There were many people scattered around the area, with beer or wine, cheese or crackers. It sure is a lovely place to go on a date.

7.28pm. Sun is still high. Sunset is at 8.06pm.

7.40pm. Cool evening. Sun was not burning hot.

7.55pm. Clouds were on the horizon so we were not going to be able to see a complete sunset.

7.58pm. We decided to go down now so we still have some light.

One more photo of the Wall of Dubrovnik and Lokrum island.

8.17pm. Light begin to disappear gradually and our eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness. It was still manageable to walk. 

We reached back at the start of the nature path about 50 minutes later, by 9pm. My travel companions wanted to take a dip in the waters so we headed to a small beach in town. This was where the last photo was taken. I was too tired to have dinner and we took Uber back to our accommodation.